I really appreciate a company that has the honesty to say when they're experiencing difficulties. There's nothing like up-front honesty.

I received this email from Linkworth the other day, and thought it was good that they openly acknowledged an issue:

Dear Partners,

We had an unexpected issue pop up today right before we began submitting payouts.  We are working frantically to get everything resolved and make sure payouts are sent before the end of the day.  They should all get out today, just not as early as we usually get them out.

If you have submitted a ticket or email asking where your payout is, please let this serve as your response.

Thank you for your patience,
Ron Wicker
LinkWorth, LLC

I received a follow-up email today, letting me know that things had actually been resolved without any impact to me as their Partner. If I had been concerned, they lift it in a very professional way.

LinkWorth Partners

This month was our biggest payout month by a mile and when we were hit with a surprise by our bank, we were worried we wouldn't have enough time to complete payouts.  NO WORRIES THOUGH!!!  We finished with plenty of time.

We're looking forward to another record month with all of you.

Regards,
LinkWorth

Very professional in my book. Thumbs up for Linkworth from the Affiliate Blogger!

Jude Wright might be on of the most unorganized affiliate marketers, but not anymore. Jude's been working in Internet Marketing for a lot of years. Don't worry Jude, I won't say how many!

As a basically unorganized person, Jude admits, "I was losing everything! I needed a solution to help me find the information that I wrote on slips of paper, kept in notebooks and saved in emails. I wanted to find that information fast!"
 
An old hand at creating databases for the construction industry, Jude turned her attentions to making one for Internet Marketing too. 

The result is a MUST have application for Affiliate Marketers called i-MarketingOrganizer.

The Version 1 software application is the result of Jude's real world experiences in Affiliate Internet Marketing, lots of research, and hard work. i-MarketingOrganizer works beautifully!

Personally, I can't even begin to tell you how valuable a little application this is. Imagine having all your affiliate program account information at your fingertips 24/7 … imagine having all you passwords and usernames waiting for you on your desktop every time you need them … and most importantly, imagine finding any of them in seconds.

No more scraps of paper or notebooks filled with scribbles. Welcome to the enlightened age of Affiliate Marketing … welcome to the world of i-MarketingOrganizer.

When I found myself asking … What is a WordPress Widget? I discovered a cool website called Automattic that had some right-on information on widgets expressly for use in WordPress blogs.

According to the folks at Automattic…

“Widgets” is just a silly buzzword we’ve chosen for this sidebar-chopping plug-in we have developed. They could have been called Gadgets or Gizmos or Wizbangs or Whatevers. On the surface, they’re just things you can use to personalize your WordPress site without knowing HTML. Way down deep, they may be something entirely more significant.

I thought that was one of the coolest descriptions for widgets I've come across. So, I wanted to share their website with you because it also has information and tips on how to use widgets, widget themes, widget plugins, etc. and all for your WordPress blog.

Widgets are fast becoming a vital tool for affiliate marketers, so get yourself educated. Spend a day with a widget, you just might enjoy yourself.

How do you make sense of the Internet noise that's coming at you from all directions?

According to Seth Godin's Squidoo.com…

Searching online should really be called poking online. Because that's what you do. You poke around. You poke in Google and you poke at some ads. After looking at a bunch of links and pages, then, finally, you get it. You understand enough to take action—to buy something or make a decision. The thing is, this takes a long time.

Squidoo's goal as a platform is to bring the power of recommendation to search. Squidoo's goal as a co-op is to pay as much money as we can to our lensmasters and to charity. And Squidoo's goal as a community is to have fun along the way, and meet new ideas and the people behind them.

Their goal at Squidoo is to leverage the power of personal recommendation online.

That's an awesome goal, but my first visit to Squidoo left me muttering, "Huh?" I couldn't figure out how it worked. It's like being a PC user in a Mac environment with all the cute names for everything, but I just wanted to get in, do it and play. Instead, I had to do something I hate to do … I had to read the directions.

Squidoo has what they call Lenses. I call them web pages or blogs. They're listed in Lenserolls … so, in my mind that's something like a Blogroll. I came across a Lense that helped me a lot How To Squidoo.

Lensrolling is a way to share the love and create your own personal lens network. List your friends' lenses, relevant lenses on your topic, or even link to other lenses by you!"

Another must read page is thier Squidoo FAQ. There you can read about Modules, which according Squidoo are…

Modules are the building blocks of lenses. A module makes it easy for a lensmaster to point to links, images, blogs or even things to buy. Some modules are curated (you enter all the links and content manually) and others are automatic (you configure the inputs and then the lens draws on RSS feeds to update your lens without any work from you). Similarly, some modules are commerce-oriented and others are just content based.

See how this is like learning a whole new language?! But it's well worth the trouble. PC World calls Squidoo one of the top 25 websites to watch, so clearly reading the directions is going to be well worth your time.

Once you're up and running on Squidoo, you'll want to read the Hot Traffic Tips and Advice from Top Squidoo Lense Masters on how to drive that traffic to your Lense (aka web site).

Do You Squidoo? Try it!

Update added 7/11/07

Read a good post on Squidoo Lens and spamming and wanted to share the link with you.

I  get so much email everyday, it's absolutely over whelming. There are things that I want to post about, but I'm too busy deleting to even have the time to post. I'm sure many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.

So, I thought I'd just post an overview for your review.

Who sends me the most opted-in email? Right now, it's Russell Bronson by far. So many emails, I just don't pay attention to them anymore. Today's email was Russell promoting Mike Filsaime. I unsubscribed from Mike's email because he was just flooding my in-box.

To be honest, when I see one marketer pushing another marketers stuff, I don't pay attention to it. It's pretty clear they're just cross promoting each other to make a few bucks. One of the other guys who does this a lot is Anik Singal at AffiliateClassroom.

When I get something from Affiliate Classroom, I check to see if it's really about Affiliate Classroom or if he's doing a promo for another marketer. If it's Affiliate Classroom, I'll read it … but anything else is just not worth the time.

What I really love is when I get a bunch of emails from all the players, all promoting the same thing. I'm torn. Who's links do I click to go see what it is now that I'm supposed to go buy?

By the way, Affiliate Classroom's April eMagazine is out. Now those are worth reading. Anik does a good job on those. Visit AffiliateClassroom.com to get yours.

1: Accessibility

Search engines must be able to access your web pages. If search engines cannot parse your web pages, then they will ignore your site and you won't get good rankings.

Make sure that your web server does not return any error codes when search engine spiders visit your web pages. If your server returns an error code, search engines will not index your site.

The correct code should be "200 OK". You can check the status code that your web server returns to search engines with IBP's search engine spider simulator (free).

In addition, make sure that the HTML code of your web pages does not contain errors that prevent search engines from indexing your site.  The content of your web pages must make sense to search engines. Do not use images or Flash to present the main content of your web pages.

2: Site and information architecture

Your web site should have a good site architecture to make sure that it is not just a collection of random web pages. The pages of your web site should be related by topic and they should show search engines that your web site is relevant to a one topic or niche.

This is very important because most major search engines seem to use latent semantic indexing in their ranking algorithms.

3: Keywords choice

Choosing the right keywords is one of the most important steps that determines whether your SEO efforts are successful or not. Consider hiring an SEO Writer.

It's best to focus on 2 or 3 word keywords for search engine optimization. One word keywords are less likely to convert to a sale, and they are also much more competitive. So, focus on keyword clusters of two and three keywords together.

4: Content

Web sites that only offer articles and affiliate/AdSense links that can be found on dozens of other web sites will have a harder time getting search engine rankings.

Try to create unique and trustworthy content that separates your web site from the others. Write — and write more — unique content for your web site to make sure that your web site becomes the best resource of information for that topic/niche.

5: Inbound links

Without good inbound links, it is impossible to get high rankings on major search engines. You should get as many links as possible from related web sites. The more targeted and relevant the link, the more it will help your search engine rankings.